Established in 2006, China-based company Wenzhou TKB Control System is a Z-Wave Alliance member and leading provider of Z-Wave thermostat, plug, in-wall switch, and module. The company manufactures its products in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Established in 2006, China-based company Wenzhou TKB Control System is a Z-Wave Alliance member and leading provider of Z-Wave thermostat, plug, in-wall switch, and module. The company manufactures its products in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. Its products are approved with TUV, GS, CE, RoHS, FCC, R&TTE and Z-Wave certifications. All of the company’s sales revenue is generated from export sales, 30 percent of which is contributed from own-brand business, and 70 percent from OEM and ODM business. Europe is one of its major export markets, especially for its own-brand products.
Haimin Zheng, General Manager of TKB Control System indicated that Europe owns great potential for high growth, followed by South America. The company plans to expand new geographic markets, such as Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Zheng indicated that plug-in switch is one of the most popular Z-Wave product categories in terms of shipment volume.
In China, most manufacturers who provide Z-Wave products conduct OEM / ODM and private-label business primarily. TKB Control System, who is one of a few Chinese companies who promote own-brand Z-Wave products to international markets.
Zheng indicated that all of its thermostats and power plugs are certified by Z-Wave Alliance. It’s crucial to ensure interoperability and quality. “However, not all the Z-Wave products in the market are certified by the Alliance, it could affect consumers’ buying intention.”
One of the factors to hinder the market is that there are more and more uncertified products made from the world. They can cause safety and interoperability problems. Those could mislead consumers that Z-Wave is not an ideal standard for smart home.
Zheng stated that a new regulation about live wire (L) and null line (N) regulation coming into force in Germany. New null and live lines both are required to connect to relays for safer control and circuit-breaking in case of any emergency.
In the coming years, the company plans to develop and launch new alarm sensors, such motion and door/window sensors. Also, the company plans to introduce ZigBee and Wi-Fi technologies into the company’s product lines. “Bluetooth is limited in transmission range, and we don’t adopt the technology by far,” said Zheng.
He explains the difference among those wireless technologies. He said, “We see lots of smart home products based Wi-Fi connectivity in China. Wi-Fi is suitable for point solutions which are easy to develop with low cost. However, Wi-Fi is not as ideal as ZigBee and Z-Wave for creating connected home network. However, it takes more time and effort for creating Z-Wave or ZigBee enabled devices.”